Woman sentenced for role in escape plot

WEST CHESTER — One of two Delaware County women involved in a failed plot to help two accused murderers escape from Chester County Prison pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to the same prison.

Jameela Aigne Rozier said she could not explain why she had agreed to become part of a plot that District Attorney Tom Hogan said would have resulted in “a bloodbath.”

“Why did you do this?” asked President Judge James P. MacElree II, who accepted Rozier’s plea on charges of conspiracy to escape and sentenced her to 11½ to 23 months in county prison.

“Honestly, I don’t know. It was stupid,” Rozier answered in a soft voice.

“What was in it for you?” MacElree also wondered.

“Nothing,” Rozier responded.Deputy District Attorney Mark Conte prosecuted Rozier and one of the men attempting the escape, Shymek Hinson, and will handle the case of Rozier’s co-defendant, Sara-Anne Lombardo.

Conte said the plans to escape included buying a center punch, which would be used to knock out a Plexiglas window at the prison reception area, and investigating how to purchase a handgun online to use in a shoot-out during the escape.

Rozier, 20, of Upper Darby, and Lombardo, 19, of Sharon Hill, had agreed to help Hinson and his inmate friend, Saleem Williams, break out of the prison where they were being held while awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges, then make their way to Mexico.

Conte said that once the plot was uncovered by Chester County Detectives and prison officials in December, Rozier came clean about her involvement and agreed to cooperate with the authorities and testify against her co-defendants if necessary. Her contrition and the lack of any prior criminal record led his office to offer a sentence that would keep Rozier out of a state prison, Conte said in court.

“Our office puts a high premium on those factors,” he told MacElree in presenting the plea agreement.

“I think the commonwealth is being most gracious here, given the seriousness of the circumstances,” the judge said to Rozier. “You are fortunate your attorney was able to negotiate such a good deal for you.”

Rozier’s attorney, Steven Jarmon of West Chester, said he had discussed the case with his client and believed that although she had taken the steps the prosecution alleged toward pulling off the caper, he did not believe she would have ultimately participated in an actual escape attempt. He said there were indications during the planning that she appeared ready to back out.

“I have doubts she would actually have gone through with it,” Jarmon told MacElree.

In December, both Hynson and Williams were awaiting trial on murder charges stemming from separate incidents in Coatesville and Phoenixville. Both have since pleaded guilty to those crimes and to the escape conspiracy. Hynson is serving life in federal prison as a result of a drug prosecution, and Williams is serving a 20- to 40-year sentence in state prison.

“This was a devious crime planned by desperate criminals,” Hogan said at the time.

According to authorities, the plot was first discovered as the result of a contraband investigation.

On Sept. 28, corrections officers found drugs hidden in mail addressed to Williams’ cellmate. Inside that mail, Hogan said, officers found references to Lombardo, whose name was then discovered on Williams’ visitor list. That led investigators to review recorded conversations that indicated the group was forming a plan, according to court documents.

The investigation led to correspondence between Hynson and Rozier, then to information about the escape plot.

The group’s plan was as daring as it was dangerous, officials said, although officials ultimately said that it would not likely have worked. But bringing a loaded weapon into the prison would have created the possibility of someone being shot, they said.

Rozier told MacElree that she was friends with Williams and knew the charges against him but did not know that Hinson was also an accused murderer.

“If he had broken out of jail and used the gun to kill somebody, do you understand that you could have been just as liable criminally?” MacElree asked.

“I have since come to realize that,” Rozier responded.

Lombardo is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to similar charges before MacElree.